Day 28 – Lancaster to Preston
Actual distance 45.61Km or 28.34miles
Total Ascent 202m
Staying at Waddecar Scout Activity Centre
Today was not as we predicted!
We woke at the lovely SilverHelme Scout Activity Centre and treated ourselves to egg baps for breakfast before packing up and travelling back to Lancaster. When we planned todays route we had thought it would be a lovely easy cycle – just over 40km along the completely flat Lancaster canal path. We had not predicted how difficult it would be!
The canal path in places is compacted bumpy stones and (for very short stretches) occasionally tarmac. However, the second you get out into the countryside the path vanishes and becomes either a very muddy track or is simply a grass along the side of the water. Occasionally the path has been worn away by erosion and there is a surprise narrowing bringing you scarily close to the waters edge. Under most bridges is an area of cobble stones sometimes with a moderate ridge as the cobbles meet whatever the preceding terrain is. When combined with the sloping curve of the bridge there was certainly no relaxing whilst riding today.
Then there was the brambles! The odd rogue bramble encroaching on the path is easy to avoid, but brambles dangling across the track plus a narrowing in the path was a challenge. Ollie got caught in the brambles twice. On the first occasion they pinged back after him straight into Jennie. On the second occasion he did an emergency stop, causing Phil to stop unexpectedly with his front wheels skidding, not have time to unclip his shoes and falling straight into the bushes and nettles. We we just glad he fell that way and not straight into the water!
Today was also impeded by bike issues. Jennie had a puncture, then her bike had an aversion to all the mud and grit, stopped changing gears and started sounding like a train (probably due to grub in the disc brakes). There was a lot of mud everywhere on her and her bike!!! Phil’s bike also had an issue with its gears.
The day wasn’t all bad. A large part of the canal was lovely to ride, and we could clearly see the whole path would make for a lovely and very accessible walk. We visited a few pubs along the way (generally to use their toilets!), but also stopped for chips and an ice cream. We also managed to stay ahead of the rain for most of the day, only getting wet during the last 15km.
We won’t pretend we weren’t all very pleased to arrive at the car that John had left for us at the end of the canal path. We were all very wet and muddy, and it therefore took longer than normal to load the bikes and ourselves. Our shoes were drenched and socks wring-able when we stopped. Jennie in particular was certainly not allowed in the car in her waterproof or walking trousers (see photo below).
Feeling rather cold and tired we headed off for Waddecar Scout Activity Centre, our home for the night. We were met there by Damian and his lovely children who kindly gave us a tour of this fantastic site. We are lucky enough to have a bunk house for the kids tonight, a kitchen for cooking, use of the site laundrette and the children also got to play in the nerf gun tin can alley! We have also been joined this evening by Bethan’s family (including Moby, Bethan’s dog) which is really, really lovely. Bethan was more than a little excited to see them all (especially Moby- sorry Sarah!)
Oh, and no biggie, but we are now over half way to Lands End!
